Zoo News: Luna and Sakari back to sharing habitat ahead of breeding season

Love is in the air this Valentine’s season, and fittingly enough, it soon may be for the Buffalo Zoo’s polar bears as well.

With polar bear mating season right around the corner in early spring, Luna and Sakari are back to sharing their exhibit in hopes to promote an environment where the pair can breed.

Around this time of year, polar bears naturally will look for their mates in order to be together for breeding season. Recently, visitors may have spotted Sakari and Luna hanging out close to the walls that conjoin their exhibit, which is one indicator for keepers that they’re seeking out one another.

As they begin to share a habitat once again, visitors may start to see some acts of courtship between the bears. Sakari may follow around Luna or they may exhibit some playful behavior, all of which typically precedes breeding.

Polar bear breeding can be tricky due to a variety of factors. Firstly, they are delayed implanters, meaning the female’s fertilized egg typically won’t be implanted until months after successful breeding bouts. Since polar bears can also have a pseudo or false pregnancy, there is no effective “pregnancy test” for the species, which leads keepers to rely on Luna’s behaviors to get some sort of clue.

However, even Luna’s behavior can be a bit misleading, as pseudo pregnancies can elicit various signs that she will have a baby but she’ll then emerge from denning in the fall or early winter without a cub. More likely than not, keepers will be just as in the dark about a polar bear’s potential pregnancy as zoo visitors.

Putting the bears in the best situation to encourage breeding is incredibly important for the conservation of the species. There were no polar bear cubs born in the United States in 2024, and with how tricky successful breeding between polar bears can be combined with their vulnerable status in the wild, any encouraging signs are positive.

Sakari and Luna will likely share their exhibit into the summer, but there’s no concrete timeline for the process. Luna will typically show signs that she’d prefer Sakari to leave her alone at some point, which eventually leads into her denning season around September.

Time will tell whether or not Sakari and Luna successfully breed, and this initial part of the process will give them the best opportunity to do so.